Feature | By Steven E. Harms, M.D., FACR

Over the years, we have seen an evolution in breast imaging. Screening mammography has been able to detect breast cancer in many women who otherwise have no signs or symptoms. Digital mammography and ultrasound are helping to better diagnose breast cancer in its earliest stages. However, no technology is perfect. Mammography sensitivity is only about 50 percent and decreases to 30 percent in women with dense breasts. Advanced technologies such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are becoming more widely used for both diagnostic and screening purposes.

Time June 29, 2011
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Feature | By Ke Sheng, Ph.D.; Wensha Yang, Ph.D.;

Radiation therapy is an important clinical option for the alleviation of pain and suffering for cancer patients and is used for palliative treatments to prevent pathologic bone fractures or tumor-induced obstructions, bleeding and pain that is resistant to other treatments. However, standard palliative radiation therapy treatment techniques often offer poor conformality and expose large volumes of normal tissues to radiation-induced toxicities, causing significant side effects for an already ill patient with a limited life expectancy.

Time June 29, 2011
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Feature | Todd Loesch

Perhaps one of the most frightening experiences a patient can have is an inconclusive cancer test, where the biopsy is negative, but several other signs point to the possibility that the disease may be present. For some prostate cancer patients, this frightening scenario is a reality.

Time June 29, 2011
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Feature | Helen Kuhl

Treatment planning is a critical component of a patient’s road toward an optimal outcome when dealing with cancer. Whether the ultimate goal is palliative or a total cure, treatment planning always aims to provide just enough dose to a targeted area to eradicate the cancer, while sparing nearby tissue or organs.

Time June 28, 2011
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Feature | Dave Fornell

The new imaging modality of positron emission tomography (PET)/magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was introduced on the U.S, market in June. The Siemens Biograph mMR (molecular MR) gained U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 510(k) clearance as the first dedicated PET/MRI system. It is also the only system to combine both modalities into one machine, allowing simultaneous imaging of location, function, and metabolic activity of organs in a single image.

Time June 28, 2011
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June 28, 2011 — Sectra and Philips Healthcare have signed an agreement under which Philips will acquire Sectra’s mammography modality operations for approximately $80 million. Through this deal Sectra’s Medical Systems business will focus on medical imaging information technology (IT).

Time June 28, 2011
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June 28, 2011 — Scientists with the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) have developed tools that expand the use of ultrasound during spaceflight and on Earth, especially in rural and under-served locations. They include techniques that streamline training and help remote experts guide non-physician astronauts to perform ultrasound exams. Ultrasound can be used to assess numerous conditions – fractured bones, collapsed lungs, kidney stones, organ damage and other ailments – in space and on Earth. With an NSBRI grant, they also created an atlas of "space-normal" imagery of the human body, setting the stage for astronauts to provide care without consulting a physician on Earth. This atlas was handed over to NASA earlier this year.

Time June 28, 2011
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June 28, 2011 — Royal Philips Electronics announced that it has acquired AllParts Medical, a privately owned, U.S.-based provider of imaging equipment parts and training. The acquisition supports Philips’ commitment to provide the imaging market with high-quality service parts, training programs and technical support. It also ties in with Philips’ Multi-Vendor Services business and growth ambitions. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Time June 28, 2011
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Videos | SNMMI

Society of Nuclear Medicine (SNM) President George Segall, M.D., chief of the nuclear medicine service at the VA Palo ...

Time June 27, 2011
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June 27, 2011 — Researchers may have discovered one reason that African-Americans are at increased risk for heart attacks and other cardiovascular events.

Time June 27, 2011
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June 24, 2011 — Texas Governor Rick Perry signed into law Texas Act HB2102, known as “Henda’s Law”, which will take effect Sept. 1, 2011. Texas is the second state, after Connecticut, to mandate the inclusion of breast density risk language in the report sent to women after their mammogram.

Time June 24, 2011
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June 24, 2011 — AT&T announced that Baptist Health System and Henry Ford Health System have signed agreements to pilot its new cloud-based Medical Imaging and Information Management service. Doctors will be able to quickly connect to patients' medical images, regardless of which device originally took the image, allowing them to offer faster treatment. The service will help lower costs in an industry where it can take multiple and unconnected systems and devices to transmit a single image.

Time June 24, 2011
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June 23, 2011 — Cancer patients in the United Kingdom will soon have access to two of the world's most advanced radiotherapy treatment machines.

Time June 23, 2011
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June 23, 2011 — Swedish information technology and medical technology company Sectra has signed a distribution agreement with McBrothers, a leading medical technology company based in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Time June 23, 2011
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June 21, 2011 — In a move that expands its technological capabilities, the Memorial Hermann hospital system has implemented a cloud-based medical image sharing platform from DICOM Grid that greatly enhances image management, distribution and data exchanges between referring physicians and hospitals in southeast Texas. Memorial Hermann is among the first in Texas to employ this image-sharing technology.

Time June 21, 2011
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June 21, 2011 – Issues involving sharing medical images and possible solutions were discussed by vendors during an Applied Vendor Learning Session at the 2011 Society of Imaging Informatics in Medicine (SIIM) annual meeting, June 2-5 in Washington, D.C.

Time June 21, 2011
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June 21, 2011 – A study introduced at the Society of Nuclear Medicine’s (SNM) 58th Annual Meeting may lead to the next wave of cancer imaging by helping to develop a molecular imaging agent that detects many malignant cancers’ incessant development of blood vessels — a process called angiogenesis. A protein biomarker known as CD105 has been shown to indicate tumor angiogenesis in cancer patients.

Time June 21, 2011
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June 21, 2011 – In just four years, Clinique Claude Bernard's Private Radiotherapy Center (PRCM, Metz, France) will have doubled the number of patients receiving radiation therapy treatments per year – from 1,100 to a predicted 2,200 patients by the end of this year. This achievement was enabled by equipping first one, then all three of its Elekta Synergy treatment systems with Elekta VMAT (volumetric modulated arc therapy). With VMAT, single or multiple radiation beams sweep in arc(s) around the patient, which can significantly reduce treatment times. On April 28, a patient with breast cancer became PRCM's 2,500th to receive VMAT since the clinic began using the technique in 2009.

Time June 21, 2011
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June 20, 2011 — Evaluating patients with multiple sclerosis who have narrowed jugular and azygos veins — and the value of widening those veins with angioplasty — warrants careful, well-designed research, noted members of a Society of Interventional Radiology Foundation's research consensus panel. The multidisciplinary panel indicated that while specific parameters for a large-scale, pivotal multicenter trial are not now available, that type of study is the "mandatory goal" in exploring a condition called chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency (or CCSVI).

Time June 20, 2011
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June 20, 2011 – The Selenia Dimensions 2-D/3-D mammography system won a gold Medical Design Excellence Award (MDEA) at the Medical Design and Manufacturing East 2011 Conference and Exposition. Selenia is manufactured by Hologic.

Time June 20, 2011
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